Like how does a moth know that it needs to feed for weeks and build cocoon?
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Autonomous processes happen by themselves. Cells divide, guts digest, hearts pump.
Reflexes happen in the local nervous system. Eyes blink to protect themselves, hands jerk away from hot stoves, pupils contract or dilate.
Instincts are hardwired into the brain. Hungry – seek food. Horny – seek mate, tired – sleep.
Emotions regulate social behaviour. I like this individual – spend time with it. This is my child – nurture it. This individual wants to hurt me – run away (or kick its ass).
Intellect solves problems. I can’t reach this thing, but if I grab a stick, the stick can reach it. That individual is able to eat dirty potatoes by first dipping them in water – imitate it. That animal sure feels scary, but if you look closely you can see it’s all a charade – eat it.
Every level is more fine-grained, but also has less control. Your intellect can’t control your heart muscle or your cell division, but it can invent a microsocope and figure out how cells divide.
Civilization is arguably yet another level. We can organize in order to solve problems that would be too complex for individual intellects, and the best individuals for a task can devote their lives to it rather than spending a lot of time ensuring their own individual survival.
All of these systems are available to humans. Other animals have them to varying degrees, and even individual becteria have the autonomous processes that keep them alive. Viruses arguably don’t even have that, and they’re also not alive as such.
The AI singularity is a hypothetical next level, where we’ve created artificial intelligences so clever that they themselves can design even more clever artificial intelligences without our help.
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